There are plenty of good flicks on the bill at this weekend’s Escapism Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre, but for our money, one stands above the rest, probably the darkest dark comedy ever.

Go back to 1964, when Cold War paranoia was rampant, elementary children were taught to hide under desks in case of attack, and dads were digging bomb shelters in the backyard using plans out of Popular Mechanics.

In Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” Gen. Jack D. Ripper, the commander of a B-52 wing, goes insane and orders his bombers on a first strike at the Soviet Union.

The ensuing global crisis shifts from the war room where the U.S. president and his advisors bicker about whether to recall the bombers and, later, who will rule the post-apocalyptic world, to the cockpit of a crippled bomber where a cowboy-hatted Slim Pickens leads his crew through the Soviet defenses.

It’s a wonderful cast, with Peter Sellers playing three parts, many memorable lines you’ll want to remember, and enough truth to remain chilling today, in a world grown blasé about living with nukes.

For a full schedule of films, visit www.carolinatheatre.org

n The Northeast Central Durham Community VOICE is a Web site, www.durhamvoice.org, and a newspaper written by local teens about life in that part of the city.

It is also a great idea.

The teens work on their writing, reporting and photography skills, mentored by journalism students and faculty from N.C. Central University and the University of North Carolina.

The idea came from Jock Lauterer, a UNC journalism professor and director of the Carolina Community Media Project. The Daily Tar Heel will print 2,000 copies of the VOICE in February.

Lauterer first got involved teaching photography to teens at SEEDS, the community gardening organization. He started an oral history project that recently brought Durham civil rights legend Ann Atwater to meet with the young journalists.

Lauterer said he learned from his own experience that working on a newspaper can be a transformative experience for a teenager. And for going out of his way to share that experience, Lauterer is the winner of this week’s Durham Grit Award.

n As fans of local history, we were pleased to see a new book published about one of the most controversial love stories on record.

Suzy Barile has written about her great-great grandparents, whose romance was scandalous in the war-ravaged community of Chapel Hill in 1865.

There was little affection between the locals and the Union soldiers who occupied Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina.

So it was shocking to the community when Ella Swain, daughter of David Swain, UNC’s president and a former governor of North Carolina, fell in love with the Union commander, Gen. Smith Atkins.

The book, “Undaunted Heart, The True Story of a Southern Belle & a Yankee General,” is extensively researched, partly from letters Ella Swain wrote to her parents after her marriage to Atkins. Another source was the diary of Cornelia Philips Spencer, the “Woman Who Rang the Bell,” who lived across the street from the Swains.

Barile makes clear that while many Chapel Hillians never approved, David Swain began the process of reconciliation by developing a friendly relationship with Atkins. And although it took years, even Ella Swain’s mother came to accept the Yankee in the family.